


You Were my Clarity, I swear, All Alone in a Daydrem

by galacticmimi



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Pining, Tooth Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-03 08:53:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6604576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticmimi/pseuds/galacticmimi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin had always been told he had his mother’s smile and his father’s eyes. But his eyes faded and his smile became scarce after years passed. He lived to watch his parents die, and his son, and his grandchildren until he had no family left and so many years passed that he forgot his own age. Old age seemed so far away, yet he felt as though he was on his deathbed every waking hour of his existence. He had lived longer than any man on earth yet had not aged a day over thirty five. He had come to terms with the fact that he would never die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Up All Night by Owl City  
> (original title: Like An Angel With no Wings, I Want to Fly Again)

It was a pathetic existence, loveless existence. He had confirmed that to himself after many lifetimes passed. Memories blurred together until every day was a reminder of a day hundreds of years before. A walk through the park was a day in Paris the year the Eiffel Tower was built, a softly burning candle was a dark night with ink stained hands writing poetry in the corner of a hushed tavern in the eighteenth century. With every lifetime that passed there was a glimmer of hope even as everyone he loved was dying around him, "Maybe I will die with them", but death never came.

When all seemed bleak on bitterly cold January in a year he couldn’t remember, a flash of raven blurred his vision. Of all his many, many years on the earth he hadn’t met someone quite as distinct. 

He had been living in a small apartment in New York, one that reminded him of the house he owned in London in 1937. The snow had fallen particularly heavily the night before, and the roads were crowded with snow plows and traffic jams. He wore a black wool coat he had bought thirty years prior that still brought him comfort. 

He had taken a shortcut through a small park in an unfamiliar neighborhood with ice covered trees hanging their branches low and twinkling with icicles. The person he met was unlike any other. He spoke with a carefree spirit, spitting out his opinion at a moment’s notice, unafraid to make a vulgar comment. His hair was the most pure shade of black Erwin had ever seen, even blacker than that of the Egyptians. He was small and lithe, but his seething glare made him seem ten times his own height. He had never pined after someone like this before, let alone a stranger. There was something about the stranger’s eyes that seemed timeless, as if he had seem twice as many years as Erwin had, many rough times and great losses. Erwin could have fallen for his eyes in any generation.

Erwin had decided that he would have him no matter how long it took. He did have forever after all.


	2. One

It was January. The snow had fallen and the sidewalks were slick with ice. Erwin had emerged from his apartment with his scarf tied tightly around his neck and his hands shoved into his pockets. He wasn’t really in a hurry, but he felt the need to walk briskly despite the ice covering the pavement. 

He walked down the bustling streets of New York, his mind wandering to how the city looked back when immigrants from all over the world were flooding the streets. He had been living in a tenement at the time with two families, one from Ireland and the other from Poland. It was a small one room apartment with barely enough room for two people, let alone twelve.

He wandered to a park he’d surprisingly never been to, the trees glistening with ice and snow. Erwin might have been distracted, perhaps he was too preoccupied with gazing at the trees, but before he knew it, someone had bumped into his chest.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” a voice growled.

Erwin nearly gasped at the stranger before him. He was a man of short stature, his head only coming up to Erwin’s mid-bicep. His hair was blacker than Erwin had ever seen, almost shining blue in the morning sun. His eyes were a piercing shade of grey, eyebrows furrowed and his thin, pale lips curled downward in a fierce scowl. His skin was almost the color of the freshly fallen snow shining on the ground, and Erwin had to refrain from staring too long. Erwin’s eyes travelled downward to the spilled coffee on the ground and then back up again to the stranger’s angry face. 

“That was my fucking coffee, dickwad.” the stranger hissed.

Erwin simply stared.

“Hello? Anyone home, old man?” the stranger waved a hand in front of Erwin’s face, awaiting a reply.

The blond blinked. “Sorry about that.”

“Yeah sure.” the raven haired man snorted, rolling his eyes.

“Let me walk you to another shop.” Erwin offered hopefully. “It’s the least I can do.”

The shorter man huffed. “As if I’d walk alone with a total stranger.”

“Let me introduce myself then.” Erwin suggested, holding his hand out. “My name is Erwin Smith. And you are?”

The stranger brushed off the handshake. “What are you, from 1965? I’m Levi, and cut the formality shit.”

“Shall we?” the blonde coughed after a few moments spent staring at the stranger’s face. “The closest shop I know of is a few blocks from here. Do you mind the walk?”

Levi snorted. “This is fuckin’ New York, genius. You gotta walk everywhere.”

The two started down the ice covered sidewalk. Erwin tried his best not to slip and fall on the cement, but his feet betrayed him a few times and he nearly crashed to the ground.

“So where are you from?” Erwin asked after a particularly startling stumble. “You don’t seem like you’re from this area.”

“The Bronx.” Levi answered gruffly.

Erwin nodded, pondering his answer. “I was born in New Jersey originally, then I moved around the world for a while and decided to come back here.” He told the extremely revised version of the story, except this time, he changed his birthplace. He couldn’t tell a total stranger that he had lived in England for twenty years and never adopted any accent. 

“Don’t need your life story, blondie.” Levi snapped, shoving his hands in his pockets and sighing heavily through his mouth. His breath came out in wispy puffs of steam in the nipping cold air of January winter.

The coffee shop was a small, quaint building in the middle of the rushed city. Bookshelves lined one of the walls and the air inside always smelled of nutmeg and chocolate. Erwin had been to the first opening when the original owner bought the building that had once been a shoe store in the 1960’s, but he had not been back since. 

Erwin absentmindedly ordered himself a coffee while staring a familiar photograph framed on the wall behind the counter. It was a black and white photo of the original shoe store taken from across the road. He would remember it, of course. He took the photo himself.

“Nice picture, isn’t it?” the barista asked.

Erwin nodded. “My grandfather took it when the shop was still a shoe store.” He lied so easily through his teeth as though it were a second nature.

“Hard to believe this place is still here.” the barista commented, wiping down the counter.

Erwin nodded, glancing to the side as his acquaintance ordered.

“I’ll have whatever’s cheapest.” He mumbled glumly, lowering his head. 

The barista happily told him his total and his eyes widened as he searched in his pockets for spare change.

“Let me check the other pocket.” Levi said hurriedly, dumping a couple quarters and a mint onto the counter. His head fell when the other hand came out empty.

“I’ll pay.” Erwin interjected, handing his card across the counter. 

The two soon walked out of the shop, both with warm drinks in their hands.

“You’re an idiot.” Levi snapped. “Do you always insist on taking poor bastards for coffee just to wave your money around?”

“I’m just helping out. Is that such an injustice?” Erwin questioned, holding his hands up in a sign of surrender. 

“That doesn’t matter! I’m doing fine on my own.” Levi huffed, pushing past Erwin with a scowl. 

“At least take this.” Erwin placed his business card in Levi’s cold hand. “If you need a job, we’re always hiring.” 

“I already have a job, now scram.” the shorter man scoffed, shoving his hand in his pocket (the one that wasn’t holding his coffee), and briskly walking away and out of sight.

**Author's Note:**

> (this seemed a lot longer written out on paper)
> 
> Part of the Owl City series


End file.
